While watching Mini, Henry, Artemis, Monya, and Karuna scamper about, roll on the ground, and play together at the Sangli sanctuary, you just can’t envision the tough life these gentle foals would have been doomed to endure if Animal Rahat hadn’t rescued their pregnant moms from Maharashtra’s brick kilns. There, as you’ve heard before (but it bears repeating), donkeys are forced to spend all day, every day—from before dawn until after dusk—carrying heavy loads of bricks on their back.

Many suffer from exhaustion, dehydration, malnutrition, wounds, and injuries, and for many, this is all while pregnant! Animal Rahat is at the kilns regularly, providing free medical treatment to the donkeys and educating their owners on proper care while working hard to persuade them to invest in a tractor that Animal Rahat will subsidize. The group has succeeded again, and now the Sangli sanctuary has 28 new donkey residents! The foals’ mothers—Madhuri, Srika, Simran, Aishwarya, and Aruna—along with 18 other donkeys are now resting (one donkey to another: “Rest? What is that?”) and enjoying peaceful days relishing fresh grass, carrots, and sweet jaggery while the foals provide the entertainment.